Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 353
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** Supporting Characters: * * * * ** Villains: * Other Characters: * * * * * * * * Locations: * ** *** ** *** ****Loft apartment of Archangel and Psylocke. * ** ***The house of Cyclops and Phoenix. Items: * Vehicles: * Deathbird's spacecraft. * | Notes = *The issue claims that Rogue promised to help Joseph regain his memories about Magneto. Technically this refers to a scene in Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 345 (June, 1997), where she promises to tell him everything about Magneto. There is a subtle difference here. *The issue has Jubilee asking Iceman about his continued presence among the X-Men and he responds that he has returned to the team. This line apparently resolves a storyline introduced in Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 340 (January, 1997), where Iceman quits the team to spend some time with William Drake, his injured father. He returned to active duty during the Operation: Zero Tolerance crossover, but it was unclear whether he intended to return to his family once the crisis was over. Apparently he has decided to stay with the X-Men indefinitely. *The X-Men Blackbird seen in this issue has not been depicted for several years. It was replaced with a new version of the Blackbird, designed by Forge. The new version first appeared in X-Men Vol 2 1 (October, 1991), and its debut coincided with a major reorganization of the X-Men team. *In Rogue's dream, she absorbs Wolverine's memories and learns that he secretly has a son. This is left unexplained. The reference may be to Erista, an illegitimate son of Wolverine introduced in Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure Vol 1 1 (February, 1990). Erista remains an obscure character. Some online commentaries have seen this dream scene as a foreshadowing of the existence of Daken, a more prominent son of Wolverine introduced in Wolverine: Origins Vol 1 5 (October, 2006). A few years later came the introduction of the Mongrels, an entire team consisting only of biological children of Wolverine. | Trivia = *Following the departure of Joe Madureira with Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 350 (January, 1997), Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 spend a couple of issues with no regular artist. This is the second issue of the series drawn by Chris Bachalo, the previous one being Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 349 (November, 1997). While he did not draw every issue, Bachalo remained the regular artist of the title until Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 365 (February, 1999). *Marrow is mentioned frequently in this issue, but only appears briefly. There are mentions of her recent fight with Wolverine in X-Men Vol 2 72 (February, 1998). Technically her presence at the Xavier Mansion may be a continuity error and/or point to poor coordination between the writers of the two X-Men titles. Joe Kelly, the writer of X-Men Vol 2, had ended that fight with Marrow running away from the Mansion and returning to the Alley. She had decided to quit the team and was not convinced to return until X-Men Vol 2 74 (April, 1998). Steven T. Seagle, the writer of Uncanny X-Men Vol 1, was apparently unaware of this detail. *Sauron humorously uses the phrase "It's a plane! It's a bird! It's Sauron!". This is a reference to the famous comic-book related phrase "Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Superman!" It was prominently used in the introduction of the television series "The Adventures of Superman" (1952-1958) and has come to be associated with various incarnations of Superman over the decades. *While not particularly prominent, various scenes of the issue feature a motif of birds. Birds seen in dreams, seen in reality, birds mentioned, and bird-like names. Culminating with the bird-like manifestation of Jean Grey's powers at the finale. This bird motif kept running for much of Steven T. Seagle's run in Uncanny X-Men Vol 1. It was presumably connected with his plan to have Jean increasingly manifest the powers of the Phoenix Force. This plan was aborted, because the Marvel editors rejected it. While Jean remained very powerful for some time, her powers were soon reduced again. Curiously enough, Seagle-like hints to Jean manifesting the powers of the Phoenix were then re-introduced by Grant Morrison in his run of New X-Men Vol 1. | Recommended = | Links = * plot summary at uncannyxmen.net }}